


Hit the Road

by BeStillMySlashyHeart



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Developing Relationship, Friendship, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22624267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeStillMySlashyHeart/pseuds/BeStillMySlashyHeart
Summary: Rosa rejoins a world that moved on without her. Her sister is torn between being happy she's alive and mourning the man she loves. Her dad doesn't know she's alive and also apparently isn't her dad. Her friends don't know how to act around her. When it all gets to be too much, she does what she's always wanted to do: she runs.At some point in the last ten years, Alex became a runner. All he needs is for someone to hand him an excuse and he's gone.When Rosa leaves, Alex finds his excuse and goes with her.
Relationships: Alex Manes & Rosa Ortecho, Michael Guerin/Alex Manes, Rosa Ortecho/Isobel Evans - past
Comments: 17
Kudos: 189





	Hit the Road

**Author's Note:**

> Ly wrote a ficlet on tumblr with Rosa/Isobel where Rosa lives and eventually asked Isobel if Isobel would go with her when Rosa left Roswell and it struck me how similar Rosa and Alex could truly be so I had to write a fic where they both run and this is it
> 
> (written pre-s2)

It didn’t quite set in until they hit the coast. The miles of ocean unfolding before and around them, the sand between his toes, and the crushing realization that Rosa Ortecho was _alive_ all hit Alex at once. 

The days immediately following Rosa’s resurrection, and Max Evans’ coinciding demise, were a mess. Liz, as much as she tried, couldn’t process it all. She flip flopped between heartbroken over Max’s death, frantic with determination to bring him back like he’d brought Rosa back, overjoyed that she had her sister back, and confused to hell as to what that meant for them. As much as she’d had trouble coming to terms with Rosa’s death, the fact was that she’d had ten years of being an only child. She made it two days, two whole days of trying to be strong and trying to be her big sister’s older sister, before she locked herself in Maria’s spare room and drank herself stupid. 

For her part, Maria wasn’t doing much better. She’d arrived at the caves with Michael and seen Rosa before anyone could think to hide her. With the reality of Rosa’s resurrection came the truth about everything else. Maria was strong, she compartmentalized and made sure she was there for Liz for whatever she needed. When Liz couldn’t go home and lie to Arturo about Rosa, she offered up her spare room and went and collected everything she needed from home. She asked enough questions to get the answers she needed about Rosa and Max and the night at the UFO opening but she didn’t push and she didn’t pry. But the realization that Michael (and Max but he was dead and she couldn’t be mad at him) had known for ten years the truth of what happened to Rosa and let her life and her family be vilified because of a lie they created coupled with the reality of Rosa being alive and Liz falling to pieces meant that she spent more than her fair share of time clutching a bottle.

Isobel and Michael were a mess. Alex had never really had the time or perspective to consider the relationship between the three of them before but Max’s absence left a clear gaping hole in them. As much as Michael professed not to get along with Max, to hate him sometimes even, Alex didn’t recognize Michael without his brother. And there was no mistaking that’s what they were. Isobel and Max may have been raised as twins but the three of them were a family, a unit if it were. Take one of them away and the other two fall apart.

For the most part, Kyle was fine. He’s blurted out the truth of Rosa’s parentage in an incredibly awkward moment and freaked her out but otherwise, he was dealing.

Rosa was not.

Alex tried to give her space, considering she looked overwhelmed by literally everything every time he saw her, but he couldn’t just ignore her. She might have been Liz’s older sister but she was the missing piece of their group. She was his and Maria’s older sister, too. When he’d joined the Air Force after graduation, yes it had been mostly because of his father and his family and what happened with Michael, but it was also because Rosa was dead and her ghost haunted Roswell too much for him to stay. He wasn’t sure how Maria had handled it all of these years but Alex couldn’t. It was the third day that he stopped by Max’s house and saw it. _That_ look. He’d seen it in her eyes his senior year as graduation neared. He’d seen it in Liz’s the last time he’d seen her before their ten year reunion. He’d seen it in the mirror every time he saw Michael Guerin.

She was going to run. 

Alex didn’t waste any time. He gave her a hug as he left and broke several traffic laws on his way home. When he pulled up outside, he didn’t bother bother taking the keys out of the ignition or even turning the car off. He’d had a bag packed since the day he moved in. It had all of the essentials and he wasted precious seconds by adding a few more changes of clothes and his leather jacket. He was back in the car and pulling away less than two minutes after he’d pulled up. Even so, Rosa was gone when he got back to Max’s house. 

He searched the place just to be sure. The only sign Rosa had ever even been here was the pile of dishes in the sink and a note to Liz on the counter.

Alex cursed as he slid back into his car. He had no idea where she’d gone but he figured the bus station was a safe bet, considering her license was ten years out of date and she didn’t actually have a car, not even Max’s. Alex never thought he’d be grateful to Isobel for parking Max’s car at her house but he knew if Rosa had had his keys, Alex never would have caught up to Rosa.

He was almost to the edge of town when he saw a woman walking along the side of the road, an overstuffed backpack weighing her down. Alex ignored the other cars on the road and slowed to a crawl next to her. “Get in,” he called through the open window. 

Rosa just looked at him sadly and shook her head. “I can’t.” She kept walking.

A horn honked loudly behind him but Alex ignored it. It was a two way street, they could go around him. He sped up just a little and angled the car off to the right and cut Rosa off. There wasn’t much of a shoulder so traffic was still blocked but it gave the other cars a modicum of space to slip around him. Alex unhooked his seatbelt and hurried out of the car and planted himself in front of Rosa.

“Alex-” she started.

“Where do you wanna go?” Alex cut her off. “Want to go west? California? Or north? Or east? I wouldn’t recommend south right now because coming back over the border would be a mess but pick any other direction and we’ll go.”

Rosa eyed him. “Why?”

“Because I know what it’s like to run,” Alex answered simply.

She scoffed. “Alex Manes? Running away from his problems?” She shook her head. “That’s not you.”

He smiled sadly, mourning briefly for the teenager she remembered. “Where are we going?”

Rosa looked at the car then back at him. “I can’t stay, Alex,” she warned. “And I don’t know if I can come back.”

“I know.” He raised an arm and pointed at the car. “So where to?”

She still didn’t look like she quite believed him but eventually she smiled. “I want to see the ocean.”

“California it is.”

\---

_From: Guerin_

_What was your excuse this time?_

Alex tore his gaze away from the waves and stared at his phone. It hadn’t even been a full day since they’d left. He hadn’t expected anyone to notice their absence yet and he would’ve bet good money that Michael wouldn’t be the first. The last few days had been strained between them and Alex wasn’t sure why or how to fix it. He wasn’t sure if it was Caulfield or Max or Maria or some combination of all three of them. He wasn’t even sure if the problem wasn’t just him and Michael.

He’d be lying if he said he only left because of Rosa. Sometime in the last decade, Alex had become a runner, the urge to just get up and _leave_ constantly under his skin. He wasn’t sure if he needed a specific reason any more or if he just waited until the world handed him an excuse. He looked back down at his phone, rereading Michael’s message. He’d never thought about Michael’s word choice before but suddenly it seemed important. Like Michael understood what Alex had never been able to admit. 

Without putting too much thought into it, Alex snapped a picture of the early morning sun glinting off of the waves, Rosa’s smile bright as she turned back to look at him, her feet kicking up the shallow water on the beach. He sent it to Michael without adding a message. 

Rosa ran awkwardly up the beach and sprinkled some water on him. “Taking pictures of me? Perv,” she teased as she flopped onto the bench next to him. “That whole fake leg is really a bummer on the beach.” Alex tensed as he did whenever anyone mentioned his leg but Rosa’s lackadaisical way of going about it made him relax almost immediately.

“You could always carry me down to the water,” he nudged her shoulder. “Think you’re strong enough?”

Rosa scoffed. “For your fat ass? As if.” But she nudged him back and shook off the last bits of water on her hand into his face. “I’ll just bring the water to you.” Alex wiped his face off with a playful glare. “That Liz?” She nodded at his phone. Alex followed her gaze to see a new message from Michael. He turned the screen off and tucked it away without opening it.

“Not Liz?” Rosa sat up, a grin spreading across her face. 

Alex pointedly stared out at the ocean. “Not Liz.”

Rosa barked out a laugh before sobering. “I’m not the only one running, am I?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know if you’re running?” Rosa raised an eyebrow. “How’s that working for you?”

Alex ignored the question and stood up. “Breakfast?”

“I’ll get it out of you Manes,” she warned but hopped up anyway. “You’re buying. Y’know on account of me being dead and having no money.” She teased, the smile not reaching anywhere close to her eyes.

“So what I’m hearing,” Alex unlocked the car and tossed Rosa a towel to wipe off her feet. “Is that you want to get a job.”

Rosa looked up from wiping her feet long enough to glare at him. “Who’s gonna hire a dead girl?”

“I can fix that.” Rosa got in and Alex turned the ignition. “Make you a new identity. You could pick a new name.”

“And what’s wrong with Rosa Ortecho?” She didn’t quite huff.

“Absolutely nothing,” Alex replied seriously. “I can find you a new social security number and you can be Liz’s cousin with the same name or we can come up with some other story.”

Rosa sighed and thumped her head back against the seat. “Can we just eat?”

Alex let it go. “Yeah. Find somewhere that looks like shit. Probably has the best food.”

An hour later they flopped onto the end of a surprisingly empty pier, their stomachs full to bursting. “That was a mistake,” Alex groaned.

“A delicious mistake,” Rosa amended. “I can’t believe he didn’t warn us the special was meant for two people. He just let us order two of them.”

“He didn’t make us eat all of it,” Alex defended. 

“He should have spit in it or something so we wouldn’t,” Rosa whined.

“You would’ve eaten it anyway.”

Rosa paused. “Yeah fine maybe,” she confessed and Alex laughed brightly. He’d missed her.

They lay in silence for a while before the sun grew too hot for them to lay about. “We should figure out where we’re going,” Alex announced. He didn’t move, though.

“What’s wrong with where we are?” Rosa asked even as she rolled over onto her stomach. 

Alex looked at her. “Where do you want to go?”

Rosa pushed up onto her knees and looked around. “I don’t know. What’s there to do in San Diego?”

Alex sat up on his elbows. “The zoo?” He tried to shrug. Rosa looked at him and shrugged in return.

“Let’s go to the zoo.”

\---

Alex’s phone rang just as they left the Reptile House, Liz’s name flashing on the screen. “Rosa?” He called as she skipped ahead of him. Rosa turned back immediately. “What exactly did you tell Liz?”

Rosa walked back towards him slowly, his phone sending Liz to voicemail. “I left her a note. Told her I couldn’t stay. That I love her but I couldn’t be in Roswell.”

“That’s it?” Alex asked in mild disbelief. “You died, Rosa. I know it’s hard for you but Liz lost you once already and-”

“Alex,” Rosa cut him off with a glare. “I get it. I died and put my family through hell. But my being back was putting Liz through hell again and I couldn’t stay there and make it worse for her. Every time she looked at me she saw Max’s dead body.”

Alex shook his head. “No, Rosa, she didn’t. She’s just trying to-” his phone started ringing again, somehow more insistently this time.

Rosa nodded at where he clutched it tight. “Answer that. Tell her I’m okay but I’m not coming back. And don’t tell her where we are. Please, Alex. She’ll come after me and I need some space. She needs it too.”

Alex disagreed but he didn’t want to argue. He answered the phone before the last ring could cut off and watched as Rosa walked away from him. She didn’t go too far, though, stopping just far enough away that she probably wouldn’t be able to hear him. 

“Alex?” Liz’s frantic voice calls before he can say anything. “Do you know where Rosa is? I can’t find her.”

Alex wasn’t sure if he should be pleased or disappointed that Michael hadn’t told her that Alex was with her. “She’s fine,” he promised.

Liz let out an audible exhale. “Where is she?”

“She’s fine,” he repeated.

There was a pause. “Alex,” Liz’s voice turned hard. “Where is my sister?”

“Liz-”

“Where the hell is she?”

“We’re not in Roswell.”

“What? You’re with her? Why? Where are you?” Liz’s voice, calm a moment ago, was frantic again.

“Liz,” Alex replied softly.

“Don’t,” Liz barked. “Don’t take that tone with me, Alex. I just got my sister _back_. Tell me where she is.”

“She asked me not to,” Alex told her apologetically.

“Alex-”

“Liz, listen to me,” he stopped and waited but Liz didn’t say anything. “I- I was talking to her and I saw that look in her eyes and I knew she was going to run so I offered to drive. I didn’t want you to lose her again so I thought if I went with her you’d at least know she was okay and she might come back.”

“Alex-”

“She’s fine, I promise,” Alex continued over her. “But she needs some time and some space to process the fact that she blinked and missed ten years. And she thinks you need the same to process the fact that your sister isn’t dead anymore.” He paused. “She’s not wrong, Liz. I can’t imagine what you’re going through with her and with Max. Maybe it’s not a bad thing that you two take some time apart to figure out this new reality we’ve got. I’ll keep her safe, I promise.”

Liz didn’t say anything at first, the only sounds between them her shuddering breaths as she held back tears. “She’s my _sister_ , Alex.”

“I know.”

“I’m gonna call you every day. You’re going to be so sick of me,” she warned and he let himself smile.

“Can’t wait.”

Liz didn’t say anything for long enough that Alex had to check that she hadn’t hung up. “Take care of her, okay? Or I swear I will kick your ass.”

“I promise.”

“And let her take care of you.” Alex opened his mouth to object but Liz kept talking. “She’s your big sister, too.” She hung up without letting him reply.

Alex stared at his phone. “She okay?” Rosa asked. Alex looked up in surprise. He hadn’t heard her come back over. “Is she mad?”

Alex shook his head. “She’s worried. And a little scared, maybe. But she’s not mad.”

Rosa looked away before squaring her shoulders and plastering a smile on her face. “Let’s go see the gorillas.”

Later, Rosa will steal his phone and snap a picture of an eagle trying to eat Alex’s hair as he holds it aloft on his arm. (Even later, he’ll send it to Michael.)

Later, they’ll go back to the beach and he’ll take a picture of Rosa with her eyes closed and the sunset reflecting on her face and he’ll send it to Liz. (She’ll send back a ’ _thank you_ ’)

Now, he lets her drag him from enclosure to enclosure and pays for her food and her ice cream and a stupid stuffed animal all without comment. 

\---

In San Francisco, Alex finally texts Michael back.

_To: Guerin_

_Why’d you kiss Maria?_

They’ve been gone just over a week. He still hasn’t talked to Rosa about why he left but he left a nightclub with the taste of another guy’s lips on his and a limp dick and he’s drunk enough to ask. It’s late and he’s not really expecting a response until morning, if at all, but his phone buzzes less than a minute later.

_From: Guerin_

_Seemed like a good idea at the time_

Alex didn’t know what to do with that. He stared at the message until a new one appeared.

_From: Guerin_

_A lot happened that day and my head was a mess and I wanted something to make it better_

So Alex made it worse. On one of the worst days of Michael’s life, Alex would’ve only made it worse. 

He turned his phone off before Michael could send another text.

It took him half an hour to find Rosa but eventually he collapsed next to her on the edge of the beach. She’d taken to spending all of her free time there. Didn’t matter what city they were in or where they were staying, Alex could always find her with her toes in the sand. 

“Have a good night?” She teased. She’d gone with him to the club but was turned away when they checked her ID. He’d tried to leave with her but she’d talked him into staying and having some fun for once. (Her words, not his) Alex didn’t answer as he closed his eyes. “Hey,” her voice softened. “What’s wrong?”

“Love sucks,” he confessed and it was like the dam broke. “I’ve been in love with this guy since high school but we’re always on different pages and we can’t communicate for shit and I thought I was ready for more, ready to try it for real and I told him. I told him and then he kissed someone else.” Rosa carded her fingers in his hair and didn’t say anything. “I, uh, I asked him why and he said he’d had a shitty day and he just wanted something to make it better. Apparently I would’ve just made his day worse. Because that’s what I do.”

Rosa hummed lightly when he stopped. “I thought I was in love with this girl,” she confessed quietly. “And then she killed me. Or I thought she did.” Alex’s eyes snapped open but she wasn’t looking at him. “I woke up or whatever and she didn’t remember anything about us. It was like we never happened and I don’t know what’s real anymore.”

“My dad and my brother rigged up a facility full of aliens to explode and I had to talk him into leaving his mother behind inside.” Alex kept his voice soft. There was no one around but he couldn’t help but being cautious.

“My sister’s boyfriend killed himself to bring me back to life,” Rosa returned. “And I feel guilty but also angry?” Her hand never stopped moving through his hair. “It’s been ten years. I don’t recognize the world anymore.”

Alex didn’t know what to say so he stayed quiet. They sat and listened to the waves for a long time. “He loved her,” he finally said. “Be angry. Be fucking furious. But don’t feel guilty. Max knew what he was doing and he knew why he was doing it.”

“Who’d Guerin kiss?”

Alex sighed. “Maria.” Rosa’s hand finally stopped as she stared down at him.

“Did she know?” Alex nodded. “Have you talked to her?” He shook his head. “Jesus. What happened to you guys?”

Alex smiled sadly. “You died.” Rosa looked away. “You died and Liz and I both ran and Maria stayed. We kept in touch but it wasn’t the same.”

“Nothing’s the same.”

\---

_From: Guerin_

_It didn’t_

_From: Guerin_

_It just made everything worse_

_From: Guerin_

_I should’ve come back. You wanted to talk and I wish we had_

_From: Guerin_

_But then Max died_

_From: Guerin_

_I never look away Alex_

_From: Guerin_

_But you always leave anyway_

Alex stared at the phone with groggy eyes. He’d forgotten to turn his phone back on last night. 

“What’s wrong?” Rosa asked from the other side of the room. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.” She paused. “Other than me, I mean.” Alex spared a glare at her for the tired joke before his eyes were drawn back to his phone. 

The first four messages were sent right after the one Alex had seen last night. The last two were sent hours later. Alex stared at them and tried to imagine Michael thinking about them and deliberating over sending them. He couldn’t.

“Alex?” Rosa was next to his bed now. “What is it?”

Alex shook his head. “Love sucks.”

She laughed. “What’s he got to say now?”

“He said kissing her didn’t help,” he replied, still not processing it.

Rosa raised an eyebrow. “That’s good?”

“I have no idea.”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “Well. I say ignore it for now. We’ve gotta check out in like half an hour.” Alex glanced at the clock and cursed. Thankfully, Rosa had already packed up their stuff so Alex only had to worry about taking a shower and making sure he was sand free before getting dressed. They were on the road before their check out time passed, the map firmly in Rosa’s hand.

“Where we off to next?”

“Yosemite?”

“Done.”

\---

By the end of week two, Alex had a brand new identity set up for Rosa. She’d kept her name, kept Arturo’s even. Rosalita Ortecho was the youngest daughter of Arturo Ortecho and an unnamed mother. She grew up in foster care until she reached the age of 18 and went searching for her dad. It’s an unfortunate coincidence that she shares such a similar name to her older half-sister that she never got to meet. 

By week three Alex bought a new cell phone and forced it into her hand. Rosa was quickly becoming obsessed with the wonders of the modern internet age and he was sick of her stealing his phone at every opportunity. Plus, it was high time the Ortecho sisters communicated with each other and not through him.

Week four saw Alex pulling up to CU Boulder. Rosa had asked about Liz’s life in the past ten years and all Alex could really tell her was where she’d gone to school so Rosa insisted on a detour. They bought a shirt at the gift shop that said CU Boulder Family and she made Alex take a picture of her in it in front of the school sign. She sent it to Liz from her new phone and Alex made himself scarce when Liz called her immediately after. 

He hadn’t talked to Michael since San Francisco. 

The pictures he kept sending didn’t count.

The pictures Michael sent back didn’t count either.

On the one month anniversary of leaving Roswell, he called Maria.

“Hey,” she greeted. She sounded reserved, almost timid, and just like that Alex was over it.

“Hey stranger,” he greeted warmly. “What’s new?” It was how they’d started every conversation while Alex was stationed elsewhere and it cut through the tension like it was nothing.

They chatted for a few minutes, Maria filling him in all of the mundane things that had happened lately. Alex in turn shared a few stories from his and Rosa’s travels. 

“I’m sorry,” Maria said when the conversation lulled for a beat. “I wanted to be selfish for once. I should have talked to you but, honestly, I didn’t want to.” No one could ever accuse Maria of beating around the bush. She had a tendency to be brutally honest when needed. Alex wasn’t sure it was needed just now but he appreciated the lack of pussy footing around the issue. “And I should have talked to you after instead of avoiding you.”

“Thank you,” Alex told her. 

“Nothing’s happened since that kiss,” she told him. 

“No need to hold back on my account,” Alex said weakly.

He heard the sad smile in her voice when she replied. “Yeah I do. You love him too much for me to try anything with him. It was stupid of me to think I could be that selfish. And besides, he loves you too much. I deserve better than being his second choice.”

“He doesn’t-”

“Yes, he does,” Maria cut him off gently. “I don’t know what’s going on between you two because he won’t talk about it with me but he does love you. You should talk to him.”

“I don’t want to,” he protested. He ignored how close it was to a whine.

Maria laughed softly. “Alex. Running away isn’t going to solve your problems. Eventually, you’ll have to come home and they’ll still be here.” Alex didn’t say anything. “You are coming back right?”

“Eventually,” Alex allowed. It was all either he or Rosa could agree to at this point. He looked up as Rosa collapsed into the seat opposite him, her phone landing loudly on the table in front of her. “I’ll talk to you later?”

“Definitely,” Maria promised. “...tell Rosa I said hi.”

Alex agreed and hung up before tossing his phone next to Rosa’s. “Maria says hi.”

Rosa arched an eyebrow. “You two good?”

“Yeah. Takes more than a guy to come between us.”

“Damn straight,” she nodded once. 

“How’s Liz?” He asked as the waiter dropped off his food and took Rosa’s order.

She waited until he was gone before answering. “Did you know a person can sound old?” She mused. “My little sister sounds older than me. She sounds…” she shook her head. “It’s like she’s Liz but not at the same time. She’s not _my_ Liz.” Her hands twisted the napkin until it started to shred. “I can accept that music sucks nowadays, that the president is a racist cheetoh, that my phone is basically a computer. But I can’t wrap my head around the idea that my little sister is an adult. She’s older than me and she’s- she’s a grown up,” Rosa laughed mirthlessly. “It’s easier to accept that you’re a vet and you lost a leg in the Middle East than it is to accept that she was okay without me.” The last part came out so quiet Alex wasn’t sure he’d heard her. 

“She wasn’t,” Alex remarked idly. “I mean she was but she wasn’t.”

Rosa stared at him. “That made total sense, thank you for that.” The waiter came back and she leaned out of his way as he set down her plate.

Alex smiled. “You’re right, she’s not your Liz. She’s a Liz without an older sister. And she’s okay, she got her degrees, she found something she loves, and she’s _okay_. But she’s also not because she’s a Liz without you.”

Rosa fiddled with her straw and stared at the table. “I don’t know what to do with that,” she confessed.

“Who says you have to do anything?” Alex leaned forward. “Rosa, no one can tell you what to do or how to act. No one has any clue what the hell you’re going through. What you and Liz are going through. You’re both just going to have to figure it out as you go. I’m sure that’s terrifying but at least you can’t screw it up, right? Because there isn’t a right answer here.”

“You sure? Because I think I’m still gonna manage to screw it up. That’s kinda what I do.” Her lips twisted sardonically.

“No, it’s not,” Alex refuted. “You’re not a screw up, Rosa. You never have been.”

She laughed. “I’d heard that people romanticize the past or whatever but in what world were you living in where I wasn’t a screw up?”

“The one where you were the first person I came out to because I knew I was safe with you,” Alex smiled. “Maybe you made mistakes. But you were- you _are_ a kid. You’re supposed to make mistakes.” He shook his head. “Doesn’t mean you are one.” Rosa still looked like she didn’t believe him but she didn’t argue anymore. “Besides, whatever mistakes you did make, you’re a damn good older sister. You always put Liz first, made sure she was okay.”

“I was running away,” Rosa reminded him with a scoff. 

“Sometimes you’ve run,” Alex shrugged. “Sometimes the best thing you can do for someone else is make the right choice for yourself. If you’d stayed in Roswell just for Liz, do you think you would’ve regretted it? Then or now?” Rosa nodded without hesitation. “Then staying would’ve only made you resent her. So leaving was the right choice.”

Rosa thought about that and they made it halfway through their food before she spoke again. “Is that your excuse?”

Alex looked at her in surprise. “What?”

“Is that what you tell yourself? That leaving is best for both of you? Because if you stayed you’d resent him?”

“I-” he blinked. “I don’t know.”

She nodded like he’d just confessed something important. “Yeah.”

“Yeah?”

Rosa hummed. “Where we going next?”

\---

They made it to the Atlantic. It took them another month and a few unfortunate detours north wherein they were quickly reminded that they grew up in a desert and winter was not for them but they got there. Rosa wriggled her toes in the sand as the waves washed over them. 

She looked up at Alex as he took a picture. “It’s warm.”

“It’s February,” Alex furrowed his brow. They had the beach to themselves and he’d parked his butt on the edge of a pier. 

“I know. And yet it’s warm.” She rolled her eyes. “I mean it’s freezing but it’s warmer than the Pacific.” She looked around. “I wonder how warm it would be if we went further south.” They’d hit Virginia Beach because it was the easiest for them to get to but they were only about halfway down the coast. 

“You wanna go south?” Alex sighed.

Rosa grinned and nodded.

They went south.

\---

“We literally cannot go any further south,” Alex laughed when Rosa suggested it again. They both looked up at the buoy proudly proclaiming this spot to be the southernmost point of the US. He took a selfie of them with it and sent it to Michael. They still hadn’t actually spoken but he refused to stop sending pictures until Michael asked him to. It felt like a lifeline. Like if he stopped, then _they_ stopped. And he wasn’t willing to do that.

“Come on,” Rosa tugged his arm. “The beach is calling my name.”

“The beach is always calling your name!” He laughed. She shot him a wicked grin over her shoulder and skipped off ahead of him.

\---

Somehow they found themselves in New York. Alex blamed Rosa. Rosa blamed Alex. 

\---

Boston was 100% on Alex.

\---

“It’s literally a ball of twine,” Rosa gawked. 

“It does appear that way, yeah,” Alex agreed. They both tilted their heads to the side as if it would be more interesting from a different angle. It wasn’t.

\---

In Austin, Alex finally called Michael. It had been almost four months since they left and it was almost three o’clock in the morning but he’d walked away from a really hot guy with just enough alcohol in him that he didn’t care.

“You pick now to call?” Michael’s grumpy voice answered. “Was three p.m too hard?”

“I can’t get it up with anyone else,” Alex complained. “He was really fucking hot and he knew how to use his tongue and yet nothing.” He thumped his head against the wall. “He had curly hair and all I could see was you.”

“...I don’t know what you want me to say here,” Michael admitted.

“Why didn’t you come back?”

Michael sighed and Alex heard the sheets rustling as he moved around. “Because I was a mess and I wasn’t thinking straight. It’s not an excuse and it’s not an apology. It’s just what it is. If I could go back would I do it differently? Probably.” He paused. “Why’d you leave?”

“Because Rosa was,” Alex answered. “And I didn’t want to let her go by herself.”

Michael hummed. “That the only reason?”

Alex sighed. “You kissed my best friend,” he accused softly.

“Yeah,” Michael agreed. “I did. That’s all I did, by the way.”

“I know,” Alex assured him. “She told me.”

“Yeah, she mentioned she’d talked to you.” There was an accusation in his voice. Alex ignored it.

“What do you want from me?” Alex had to ask. “What do you want from us?” Michael didn’t answer right away. “Do you even know?”

“Do you?”

Alex hung up.

\---

“Isobel called me,” Rosa announced as they drove through the endless corn fields of Kansas.

“Oh?”

“She said she remembered some things from back then but she didn’t know what it all meant.”

Alex waited.

“Why do I have to tell her?”

“You don’t.”

Rosa looked at him. “But she doesn’t know. She doesn’t know who we were to each other.”

“And that sucks for her, really it does. But that doesn’t mean you have to make yourself uncomfortable to remind her. I know she’s a painful subject and I can’t imagine trying to talk _to her_ about her would be any less painful.”

She looked out the window. “It’s not.”

“If you want to talk to her, then do it,” Alex advised. “But don’t do it if it’s going to hurt you. Remember it’s okay to pick yourself first.”

They made it to Nebraska before either of them said another word.

\---

“How’s Guerin?” Rosa asked in Nashville.

“How’s Isobel?” 

Rosa shrugged. “Wouldn’t know. I’m putting me first,” she smiled around her straw. “Guerin?”

Alex let out a heavy sigh. “We don’t know what we want.”

“When’s the last time you talked to him?”

“Talked? Austin.”

“Texted?” Alex’s phone buzzed then, Michael’s name flashing on the screen as if summoned, and Rosa laughed. “So?”

Alex shrugged and turned the phone face down. “It’s a work in progress.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Good? Or…?”

“I don’t know,” Alex sighed. “And that’s the problem.”

“But you love him.” She didn’t phrase it as a question because by this point she knew better.

“And yet we don’t seem to be good for each other.”

“Says who?”

Alex stared at her. “The past ten years.”

Rosa pulled the straw out of her shake and sucked a chunk of ice cream out the other end. “Sounds like you’ve never actually tried before. So how do you know if you’re good for each other or not?”

Alex didn’t have an answer for her.

\---

They went to Vegas for Rosalita’s 21st birthday. The less said about that weekend, the better. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas and all that jazz.

(except for the three drunken phone calls to Michael, the unintelligible message on Isobel’s machine, the 27 texts in a group chat with Liz and Maria, and the four videos sent to Kyle - those unfortunately did not stay in Vegas)

\---

Rosa drove them back to California so she could learn how to surf. Alex found a bar that reminded him of the Wild Pony with an open mic night and a guitar for him to use. 

They stayed there for two months.

\---

It was almost eight months after they’d left when their phones went off almost simultaneously in the middle of the night.

Five minutes later they sat in silence, the dark room suddenly oppressive. 

“They’re going to wake Max up,” Alex broke the silence. 

“She wants me to meet him,” Rosa admitted quietly. She waited half a beat before she was up and out the door. Alex let her go. Sometime in the last few months, Rosa had taken to literally running her stress off. Alex wasn’t sure if three a.m. was a good time to go running by herself but they were in a small coastal town in Maine and he wasn’t too worried.

Instead of following her, he shifted on his bed until he was sitting up against the headboard and he waited. 

He didn’t wait long. Maybe ten minutes after Kyle and Liz called them, his phone rang again.

“Kyle and Liz already called,” he answered.

“You asked me what I want,” Michael replied. “I want you. I want you here and I want you with me when I get my brother back because I want my family here and together and I can’t have that if you’re on the other side of the country.”

He said it like it was that simple. 

Maybe it was.

“Okay.” 

They both hung up after that, no need for any more words. Not when they’d see each other soon.

When Rosa came back half an hour later, sweaty and panting, she took one look at him and nodded in resignation. “We’re going back.”

“ _I’m_ going back,” Alex corrected. “You have to decide what’s best for you.”

She flopped onto her bed. “What if I don’t know what that is?”

Alex considered his next words. “Well. You’ve tried running. How about you go home and see about staying?”

She rolled over to look at him. “The entire town of Roswell thinks I’m dead,” she reminded him. “My dad still thinks I’m dead.”

Alex turned to face her, his legs hanging over the edge of the bed. “We just tell them your cover story. They might not buy it but I think they’ll accept it in the face of literally any other explanation. And I think it’s time your dad knew, don’t you?”

“I don’t know, Alex.”

“You don’t have to come with me,” he reminded her. “I can leave you the car and catch a plane back. You can keep traveling.”

She shook her head and stood up. “I’m going to take a shower and then I’m going back to sleep.” Alex let her go.

He managed a few hours of sleep before getting up and taking his own shower and packing his things. In the fifteen minutes he spent running out for breakfast, Rosa got up and packed everything else.

“What?” He stared at the room when he got back, greasy take out in hand. Everything was packed and ready to go. For both of them. 

Rosa took the food from him without meeting his eyes. “I miss my sister.”

\---

It took them two days to get back. Truthfully it probably should’ve taken them three, maybe even four, but they only stopped for food, gas, and a few hours of sleep when neither one of them could keep their eyes open anymore. 

They rolled into Roswell at almost midnight the following night and Alex dropped Rosa off at the Crashdown with a smile and a (gentle) shove out of the car. He waited just long enough to see Liz come downstairs with a bat only to drop it in shock. The two of them collided in a hug so fast Alex honestly wasn’t sure he could say who moved first. 

He left them to their reunion and turned towards the scrapyard. There was a fire dying down when he pulled up and a light on in the Airstream. The door swung open as Alex turned the car off and got out. The headlights stayed on just long enough for him to almost close the distance between them before Michael got a good look at him. 

“Alex?” Michael breathed.

“Hey,” Alex replied softly, twisting the keys in his hands. Michael hadn’t exactly asked for him to come by when he got back into town but Alex had assumed…

Michael was wrapping his arms around him before Alex registered that he’d left the doorway. He pressed his face into Alex’s neck and held him tight. Alex tensed in surprise before returning the hug in kind. “How was Bar Harbor?” Michael mumbled into his shirt.

“Bah Habah,” Alex corrected with a small grin. Michael pulled back just far enough to raise an eyebrow. Alex shrugged. “It’s how they say it. It was nice.” He smiled. “Good to be home, though.”

“Yeah? Didn’t think you missed Roswell all that much,” Michael questioned.

“I didn’t,” Alex shook his head. “But I got back into town an hour ago and I wasn’t home until just now.”

Michael grinned. “Wow.” He laughed and shook his head. “That was so cheesy.”

Alex blushed and started to pull back. Michael didn’t let him go far before he was pulling back in. He cupped the back of Alex’s head and kissed him gently. “I missed you.”

“Missed you too,” Alex confessed before kissing him again. 

\---

They woke Max up two days later. The first thing he did was ask for Rosa. 

The first thing _she_ did was slap him upside the head. “Don’t ever die on my sister again.”

He laughed breathlessly. “I won’t if you won’t.” 

Alex was a little afraid Liz’s face was going to break with how wide she was smiling. 

\---

Three months later Rosa left again. This time, Alex stayed and Liz went with her. They had a going away party and Arturo gave both of his girls hugs before waving them off. Alex had been right when he’d said the people in Roswell wouldn’t believe Rosa’s new life story but they’d accept it over the truth. No one really questioned how or why Arturo suddenly had a new younger daughter named Rosa who looked exactly like the old Rosa. They didn’t want the answer if they did.

As they drove away, Michael tightened his grip on Alex’s waist. “You want to join them?” He’d already asked Alex that no less than eight times since Rosa announced she was ready to hit the road again. 

“No,” Alex answered anyway. “Besides, next time I leave, you’re coming with me.”

\---

(Rosa and Liz were gone for almost four months. Max was a mopey mess the entire time but the two came back with a stronger bond than ever and the absolute certainty that Rosa and Vegas are a bad combination. They all had the messages to prove it.)

\---

(Alex left a year after they got back. He took Michael with him. They didn’t come back for almost two years. Thank god for Airstreams.)


End file.
